Gil Miller presents Neka Roundy with a plaque sporting a gavel and citation
Two of my sons, Paul and Jake, were headed out the door for the Kaysville City Council Meeting. They invited me to come along, so I did. I asked Paul why he was going to a council meeting. He said he always goes to council meetings — when he doesn’t go to Institute. Which would be once, maybe twice a year when class is not held.
The agenda, item one, simply said “Opening”. That turned out to be an opening prayer by Councilman Lynn Galbraith. I always wonder if a prayer will be said as the practice seems to have been driven out of public gatherings over the years. After the pledge of allegiance the spotlight was on Dr. Clark B. Rampton who presented his Orthodontics Practice at the invitation of the council. This is the same business that straightened out all five of my children’s teeth.
One thing I like to do at meetings is to pay close attention to what is said. I learn a lot that way. At the same time, I am observing human behavior. Who gets angry, who is persuasive, what agenda items take up the most time, who is helpful, which people put off decisions, and so on. I find it all very interesting.
Next up was a citizen who was quite irate about his cul-de-sac not being plowed after the last snow storm. He wanted the council to have a snow policy. They said they responded to each storm depending on several factors. So the citizen became more irate. But with some carefully worded and empathetic responses by councilmen and the mayor-elect, he calmed somewhat. He didn’t get what he wanted — a very specific list of streets and the order in which they would be ploughed, but he did get a commitment for the city to look at his situation.
There were other items of business but no more irate Kaysvillians. Near the end of the meeting, under item 8, “Council Member reports”, gifts of appreciation were given to outgoing Councilman Lynn Galbraith and Mayor Neka Roundy. Neka’s plaque read:
Neka F. Roundy
Kaysville City Mayor
2006 – 2010
Kaysville City Councilmember
2000 – 2006
The list of first priority roads for the snow plows can be found here. http://www.kaysvillecity.com/img/PlowRoute.pdf
Since the part of Oak Ln that the irate citizen lives on is a cul-de-sac, the street is unlikely to obtain first priority status.
Rather than being upset that another cul-de-sac was plowed before his, I think he should have pushed for a list of second priority streets to be plowed that would include steep streets like his.
I am of the opinion that the citizen is being unreasonable and the city council should not take any action except perhaps to suggest that he learn to act civilly.
It will be interesting to see how the response in the next meeting.
It seemed like the council was willing to consider putting his street on the second priority list instead of the minor street listing. He even was annoyed at that suggestion because he “didn’t want special treatment”.
There is no second priority list of roads. That is what makes his complaint about another cul-de-sac being plowed before his so senseless. After the first priority streets are done, the remaining roads are plowed in no particular order.
Gil Miller said that there was a primary, secondary, and minor roads list.
I was impressed how the city council handled the issue. Even when the citizen was irate the council got to the bottom of the issue without anyone’s feelings being hurt.
A few council members seemed to thinking of making a special list for dangerous streets that might get higher preference above others, but they only seemed to hint at the idea. It would be interesting to see what they end up doing.
Overall I don’t think that citizen was given special consideration, just the consideration that how things were currently being done would be communicated to him.
What happened with Item #6 on the agenda (Request to amend Title 17, Planning and Zoning, to allow telecommunication towers and telecommunication towers of height greater than thirty-five feet in all residential zone districts – Verizon Wireless)? Are we now allowed to put 100 ft cell phone towers in our yards?
Was there any objection to the water conservation plan adoption? They may have had public comment on the plan several weeks/months ago, I guess.
Item #6 was rejected. They council was strongly against it. It seems unlikely to be changed in the future. You are still restricted to thirty-five foot towers in your yard.
The water conservation plan was only slightly modified from the existing plan that has been in place several years. There were no objections to its adoption.
The council didn’t waste any time in denying #6. Apparently Verizon initially wanted the school to request a zone change for higher towers. When that didn’t happen they asked for all residential to be changed.
It looks like the council would consider him in the street is the first priority of the secondary market street